Delete mass or multiple sms on iphone ios 5

Unfortunately, there isn't a way to delete all your SMS messages in one go unless you have "hacked" or "jailbroken" your iphone. (For those that have a jailbroken phone search for "Clear all SMS" in Cydia repository)

For those that have a regular iphone you have a few options. 

1. Side your finger in a backward motion on each message you want to delete. A red delete button will appear after your gesture.

2. Or hit the edit button and select the tick boxes for those messages you want to delete and hit the red delete button that appears at the bottom of the screen.

That's it I'm afraid. This is the downside of letting Apple control your experience. You have to wait until they upgrade their system rather than thousands of developers doing it for them concurrently.

Britain’s failed service economy

Have you ever looked around and wondered if your job or even your friend’s jobs add any value to UK PLC? Excluding jobs that actually provide a tangible service i,e hairdressers, newsagents etc. Lets take a look at middle class jobs. You may have a good education, a wealth of ideas and a degree in engineering/ astrophysics etc. But, more likely than not, you will be in an office somewhere typing letters or slides, discussing orders or writing powerpoint involved in “IT projects” improving existing processes. Occasionally, you will be involved in capital allocation discussions but as an employee these are rare – its not your capital!

Britain’s ever growing list of services jobs continues and you wonder if we need so many?

Gym instructors, lawyers, accountants, asset managers, retail assistants, traffic wardens, social service “consultants”. [not an exhaustive list – nor am I singling out these professions]

Are these people actually do’ers? Do we gain more benefit from these professions than say, an inventor, or a trial researcher? I mean, we do need them, but should they be so large as to eclipse our manufacturing staff? Or our teachers and research & development facilities? Do we really care more about what T-shirts people buy over developing the next fibre optic breakthrough? Do we need people to police the rules rather than simplifying them and creating the on-line technology to aggregate and improve?

Wouldn't it make sense to allow more people to create, invent and develop? Actively encourage the masses to do this rather than just “get a job”. Everyone isn't capable of this but yet the human brain is a feedback system, give it enough information and knowledge and its capabilities seem limitless. How do we manage our people to deliver this value to society? Do all people even want to create marginal social benefit? Or are they happy with a roof over their head, a well fed family and a nice television program for entertainment?

We sell each other groceries, houses, effort, time and even money (with interest), yet at the basis of all of this are just a few simple resources. Time, natural resource and invention. We need to focus on these and never allow ancillary services to overtake them. For instance, management consultants provide different ways of viewing the same problem, but how often do they genuinely create something new? How often are they simply performing the functions which management should be doing themselves, namely, aggregating business information and analysing this to develop new strategies for shareholder value? Why have they abdicated fiduciary responsibility for their business? You could argue that these ideas and strategies are created by competition driven consultants which should create more ideas, but is this actually happening?

The world is full of potential how we tap into that depends on the system human beings use. Capitalism on the face of it seems like a good way to allocate resources in a “perfect world”, but what economics doesn’t seem to discuss is that human beings are very adept at breaking any system. We find loopholes, develop strategies to cope and manage situations to our advantage – we are – ingenious! To fight this, we need constant change to stop the status quo gaining a foothold and forcing a change in mentality. We need this because inherently we all wish to settle in equilibrium but this creates fulfilment which, if it lasts too long, destroys humanity’s hunger and ingenuity. We are like the oil that settles at the bottom of the lava lamp. Without energy we stagnate but with enough momentum we use the energy to create a beneficial cycle that is virtuous.

Britain will continue to have the same divide which exists in every country. Those that want to achieve something and those that want to just use up the time given to them until they die. I for one certainly want to create more people in the former category through better education and a clear path from ideas, prototyping and market execution. Socialism always seems doomed to failure because of human greed at the top of any pyramid and a reflectance to reward human innovation. How do we get the middle class to innovate? As Steve jobs said - he was middle class so he never would have starved if he started a business and failed. He also wouldn't have had a house, family or a decent job if he'd failed - that is the dread that most people cannot contain when thinking of starting a business.

What will get our economy going again? Using time, natural resource and innovation. Namely material sciences, oil, gas and renewables, genetic, medical and software computer innovation. These are the things that other countries will really pay us for in the long run. Not financial services.  Elements of both socialism and capitalism is probably what we need to create a well balanced economy but then - who would lead? How would the political class not be corrupted by vested interests? I don't have an answer to that.

The number one principle is "Don`t believe anything; think for yourself." - Ray Dalio [Bridgewater Capital]

The talking heads and commentators around the world want to be paid to tell us what they think. But what if its all talking just for talking's sake? What if the information is just data? Simply telling us data points without the "so what" or the "what if"? Is this why no one ever checks the predictions these people make? Will any current affairs programme spend January 2012 going through the predictions they made in January 2011 to check if they were right? No they won't. Why? Because it is not in their interests. They are simply providing a repeatable gimmick, a promise of correct future predictions with no accountability or rigourous analysis. No different to a common con man.

We have created a society where we value the attention of crowds. We simply take their economic value and pass it on to a smaller group of wealthy individuals/corporates. The concept of "society" for the middle classes is being eroded and no longer exists except for the wealthy high society. We raise money for charity only to give most of it to the administrators and corporates who provide the services to the poor at prohibitively expensive rates thus ensuring people in the middle class have jobs; whilst the wealthy have assuaged their guilt and the poor will continue to remain on hand outs forever.

Would it not be better to enable the masses to apply their talents for economic benefit. Surely it is a numbers game, ensure enough of them develop a mindset to solve problems and then adapt people who learn to apply their talent to commercial applications. Its a grand social engineering challenge that politicians have tried to create but they have never managed it. In an age of instant communication we need less and less innovators to benefit the world. It just takes one idea and prototype and the whole world can copy and benefit from it. As information is set free and the world learns through distributed networks like www.khanacedemy.org and http://www.codecademy.com/ we are beginning to create a world in which we can all learn. The cheap computers from http://www.raspberrypi.org/ will be the final puzzle to engage the poor. We just need more electricity from sustainable renewable resources and we will create a virtual society where economic value will no longer be dictated by where you were born and more about what you can do for society. Every bit of economic value can we generated from using your on-line skills to attract crowds to your virtual shops,  games, consulting or engineering. Once we get a few people doing this a flood will follow and the status quo may begin to be up for debate. If its a numbers game the children in the West certainly aren't the ones who could capitalise on this opportunity. Can we create this virtual society? I think we can, we just need to by-pass the vested interests. Remember, have an idea, write down the final goal and the steps you need to execute it - then try and do it! Failure along the way makes you better - and when you look back it will be fun!

Desktop search without administrator rights access

Ever needed a desktop search on a work or remote computer where you don't have admin rights?  I've found one -

Its called Puggle Desktop Search. Its Java based. You can download a windows/linux/mac installer or the portable version which can just be run as an executable file on windows machines without installation.

You might also want to try DocSearcher which is also Java based but a little less user friendly.